Let’s not forget that we are also facing a water crisis

If we do not address the country’s water security situation, the impending food crisis will further worsen. Food production needs water. Unfortunately, there is now a global water crisis and we are not exempted.

Fifty-five people die every day from water-related causes. Around 16 million Filipinos have no access to drinking water. More than five million hectares of denuded forest lands and 300,000 ha. of lost mangroves have resulted in massive flooding. Thirty-four of our water-related agencies are not even coordinated.

La Niña is already upon us and we must move quickly. This phenomenon will cause debilitating floods, damaging our crops. But since we do not save the excess water, drought will only hit us worse when it comes. From water everywhere, we will have water nowhere.

Irrigation

Our rain harvesting rate is just a dismal 4 percent compared to places in India with a 60-percent rate.

The proposed budget of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) for 2023 was increased to P40.8 billion (a far-cry from the P9.3 billion for this year). Perhaps a large portion of this should be devoted to small irrigation systems? NIA has a very large portion of its budget focused on the usual large irrigation systems.

Note that there is a smaller scale system called Small Water Impounding Project (SWIP). It is a structure constructed across a narrow depression or valley to hold back water. It develops a reservoir that will store rainfall and runoff during the rainy season for immediate future use. It helps prevent floods and provides livelihood opportunities such as fisheries. Its service area is usually 25 to 150 ha.

In a study done by Professor Rey Naval in Divisoria Norte, Quirino, he identified a 46-hectare SWIP worth P800,000, or about P17,400 per hectare. A hectare yields an average 2.08 tons or P31,314, giving a return on investment (ROI) of 180 percent.

Now compare this with a larger irrigation system. It usually costs P300,000 to irrigate a hectare with a yield of 4 to 8 tons (if there is an additional harvest during the same year.)

If palay costs P11.20 a kilo, the increased benefit is P44,800. The ROI is just 15 percent.

Based on the numbers from the Quirino project, SWIP yielded 12 times the ROI or effectiveness of the regular irrigation system. Given this analysis, a large portion of the NIA budget should be allocated to similar SWIPs.

Budget allocation

Such ROI criterion should be used to determine budget allocation per Water Security Movement, Inc. chair and former Bulacan Governor Roberto Pagdanganan.

On June 25, 2019, he told Congress and the Executive Department: “The NIA and [the Department of Agriculture] must prioritize irrigation repair and rehabilitation if these have higher ROIs than new construction.”

In acknowledging our poor 4-percent water harvesting rate, he added: “The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should fast track the construction of water impounding dams.”

The best management approach to solve our water crisis was also stated in a position paper by the Water Security Movement: “Implement immediately the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) framework by supporting our 18 major water river basins through this successful decentralized approach used by many countries.”

Today, the 18 public-private river basin management councils are poorly funded. They do not have the resources to successfully coordinate the billions in funds that the government water-related agencies have at their disposal, including irrigation alternatives most responsive to their unique needs.

Unless we address our water security problems through an effective public-private shared governance (via a river basin council) using the ROI approach, we will not effectively address our food crisis.

The author is Agriwatch chair, former secretary of presidential flagship programs and projects and former undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry. Contact is [email protected].